The initial hearing of former prosecutor Jesús Murillo Karam began on Saturday morning, in the North Prison, for the case of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa.
However, the defense of the former prosecutor asked for an hour of recess to be able to review the investigation folder that was delivered to him.
Around noon, the former prosecutor’s appearance resumed.
The initial hearing is presided over by the control judge Marco Antonio Fuerte. Former Attorney General Murillo’s lawyers are Antonio López Ramírez, Elba Vázquez and José Javier López.
On the part of the prosecution are Lidia Bustamante and Sergio Navarro. As well as Santiago Aguirre, from the Pro Center, representative of indirect victims, mothers and fathers of direct victims; and Daniela Aguirre, representative of torture survivors.
The hearing, in an adjoining room, was attended by two people as protected witnesses, indirect victims and parents of a direct victim.
It is expected that in this first hearing the former prosecutor will be informed about the crimes for which he is accused.
Ministerial authorities told Animal Político that Murillo Karam will be charged with three crimes: forced disappearance, torture and crimes against the administration of justice.
All are related to the role of the former prosecutor in the Ayotzinapa case and merit informal preventive detention, that is, that the former official must remain deprived of liberty while it is defined whether or not a criminal process is opened.
For the 9:00 hours of this Saturday is scheduled the hearing of Jesús Murillo Karam, former attorney general of the Republic, accused of the crimes of forced disappearance, torture and against the administration of justice, in the case #Ayotzinapa.
📹 @nayaroldan. pic.twitter.com/vMpxOtkVNO
— Animal Político (@Pajaropolitico) August 20, 2022
Read: Crime and State Failures in Ayotzinapa: Omissions of the Army and Judges and Murder of Witnesses Stop Resolution of the Case
Before 9 a.m., Santiago Aguirre, a lawyer with the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center and representative of the Ayotzinapa families, arrived at the prison.
To the place also the doctor Alberto Jonguitud to review the state of health of the former prosecutor.
Jesús Murillo Karam, who was Attorney General of the Republic in the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), was arrested, on Friday afternoon, outside his home by federal authorities.
Until Friday night, Murillo Karam was in the possession of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and was due to be presented before a judge at the Federal Criminal Justice Center of the North Prison.
This same Friday, the FGR managed to get a judge to issue 83 arrest warrants against military commanders, authorities of different levels in Guerrero and alleged criminals, for different crimes related to the Ayotzinapa case.
Shortly after Murillo Karam’s hearing began, his defense requested an hour of recess to review the investigation folder that was given to him.
Report @nayaroldan. pic.twitter.com/RLUmZjpZxx
— Animal Político (@Pajaropolitico) August 20, 2022
Murillo Karam and the Ayotzinapa case
As prosecutor, Jesús Murillo Karma led the investigations into the Ayotzinapa case, as the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School on September 26 and 27, 2014, is known.
From that position, Murillo Karam was the main promoter of the so-called “historical truth”, that is, the version that the Peña Nieto government promoted to try to explain what happened with the normalistas.
According to this “historical truth,” the youths were deprived of their liberty by municipal police colluding with members of Guerreros Unidos, murdered and then incinerated.
On Thursday, the Truth Commission presented its latest report on the disappearance of the normalistas.
Read: PRI defends Murillo Karam and says his detention is a political issue
The document confirms that it was a state crime, with the involvement of authorities from the three levels of government, although it also warns of institutional failures that allowed the disappearance of the young people and have prevented everything from being clarified.
One of the main points of the report is the revelation that the Army had an infiltrated soldier among the normalistas, Julio César López Patolzin, and did nothing to rescue him.
Another is that there is no evidence that the boys were taken to the Cocula garbage dump, as the “historical truth” claimed, and one more indicates that testimonies and evidence point to the students being killed.
After the release of the report, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assured that the case is not closed.
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